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A Federal Claims Court on July 21 granted a motion requiring the U.S. Department of the Treasury to release all discovery document materials related to the decision to put Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship, HousingWire reported.

Federal regulators are directing the eight largest U.S. banks to maintain capital at levels beyond industry requirements to protect against unexpected losses and to reduce the possibility of future taxpayer bailouts, the Chicago Tribune reported July 20. The banks will have to jointly possess $200 billion in additional capital.

Solar panel systems owned by a property owner can add 4 to 6 percent to a home’s value, but leased solar panels can decrease values, according to an analysis of Phoenix-area homes by Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School, the Arizona Republic reported July 17.

Increased buyer demand and a limited supply of existing homes for sale drove national median house prices to a record high in June, surpassing their 2006 peak, the National Association of Realtors reported July 23.

The housing market remains weak but is steadily improving, Freddie Mac reported July 22 in its Multi-Indicator Market Index. Markets in 26 states and in 38 of 100 cities tracked by the index now are in the stable range.

Home sales to first-time buyers and those using Federal Housing Administration loans increased in June, reaching a two-year high during the second quarter and accounting for 23 percent of all single-family home and condo sales, analytics firm RealtyTrac reported July 22 in its Midyear 2015 U.S. Home Sales Report.

The W.T. Waggoner Estate Ranch, the largest in the nation at 510,527 contiguous acres, is on the market in Texas for $725 million, Bloomberg Business reported July 21. Included in the sale are several residential dwellings and other facilities, more than 1,000 oil wells and 30,000 acres of cropland.

Activist investor Starboard Value is pressuring Macy’s Inc. to spin off its department store properties into a real estate investment trust that could be worth $21 billion, Fortune reported July 17. Other retailers with less valuable properties have reaped significant rewards by putting real estate into publically traded REITs.

Demand for industrial space is on a record pace for the last half of 2015, with an absorption rate up more than 22 percent from last year and a vacancy rate at its lowest point since before the recession, according to commercial real estate services firm DTZ, MBA NewsLink reported July 23.